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Area 51 (2005 video game) Game Engine
Area 51 runs on a proprietary game engine developed by Inevitable Entertainment, a studio who later would be known as Midway Studios Austin.Game Industry Biz, Midway Acquires Area 51 Developers They leveraged technology and knowledge from previous games developed at the studio; which not only kick started the project, but made the engine unique to Area 51. Engine Development "The majority of the engine technology was developed in-house, including our editor, which is PC-based, rendering engine, physics, and animation systems." —Darrin StewartIGN Area 51 (2005) Interview Being in development for nearly three years - almost half of that time was spent just building the game engine, toolset and art pipeline, which was absolutely vital for executing on the original vision for the game. AI Behaviors "Without the characterization brought by these entities - and their specific AI behaviors - Area 51 would be a very sterile and boring place; they are absolutely crucial to a compelling game." — Jim Stiefelmaier "Factions" The AI in the game is actually divided into three main categories: squad, mutant / alien and civilian / other. The "faction" system is so robust they evened designed a player mutation ability around it. Contagion causes an enemy to switch faction and attack his friendly team first. A good trick is to use Contagion on a Theta and watch as the hulking giant mauls the leapers that were threatening you. Allies/Squad The squad combat was designed to mimic the Military Operations in Urban Terrain instruction our soldiers undergo in advanced infantry training courses. They provide mutual covering fire, take cover to reload and throw grenades - or provide covering fire while another teammates throws one. They will try to attack an enemy that is actively shooting at and hitting a teammate over an enemy that is simply maneuvering. Mutant/Alien Mutant and alien AI took a lot more consideration. They needed to feel different than humans. A good example is the Leaper AI. This was patterned after the way a leopard strikes its prey, by stalking and hitting its victim, then quickly sliding off to one side and then striking again. Leapers are also fun because they leap and crawl on all fours, including crawling on walls and ceilings. Gray Aliens needed to feel ethereal and above mere humanity. They walk around and barely notice you, except every once in a while, they'll stop and study you with their creepy eyes. There's also some boss creatures called Thetas that really required a lot of programming and thought. Civilian/Other The civilian / other category provides the behaviors of the populace that inhabits the base. It even includes Dr. Cray who navigates via high-tech wheelchair. Some Illuminati villains are thrown in the mix as well as biological entities that relentlessly home in on you. Sounds "When you are exploring and not causing mayhem, you can get a sense of the environment around you just by the sound. Then you can go back to blowing s%&! up!" — Jim Stiefelmaier The sound effects in the game were designed from day one to utilize the Dolby Pro Logic II technology for the PS2. All of the non-visual ambiance - room tones and streamed ambient sounds - were PLII encoded to set the player in a surround space. The visually based sounds are 3D positioned at runtime as expected. The Area 51 audio system - lovingly referred to as Cacophony - takes advantage of more than just the standard sound memory so that it can give the player a more diverse and immersive experience. Creatively the sound design follows a similar path as most shooters. The emphasis is on the weapons, death and destruction! For Area 51, it tried to up the ante a bit by adding a more emotional take on the ambiance, utilizing more subtlety instead of bashing the player over the head with sounds coming from nowhere. Gallery Area51-2005_Scanner.jpg|Scanning a teammate. (They don't like it either.) Area51-2005_AlienVessel.jpg|Approaching an alien vessel. Area51-2005_DarkOps.jpg|An alien device, featuring "DarkOps". Sources Category:First Person Shooter Engine Category:Articles needing images Category:Engines Category:Original Research